Travel summary: 12 wonderful things that happened

Travel summary: 12 wonderful things that happened

Here is a summary of our most popular tour events in 2016

In last year's travel summary we spoke of turbulent events, political instability and aggression around the world.

As the French would say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

In fact, we experienced our fair share of tumult, instability and aggression in 2016 - and Brexit and Trump only promise more.

January: Google Street View starts on the Mont Blanc

In January, Google Street View started on Mont Blanc, which enables even the laziest to climb the famous summit alongside experienced mountaineers.

alt = “>

Ueli Steck climbs in the ice on the Mont Blanc (picture: Google, Fair Use)

The viewers can- see the speed and 57 meters for the ascent and descent to Mont Blanc- watch the summit over the summit or follow Ueli stuck during his vertical ice climbing.

alpine glaciers and huge seracs are shown in all their high -resolution splendor and offer panoramic views that normally only get to see.

February: Guests invited to sleep in a van Gogh painting

In February, the Art Institute of Chicago teamed up with Airbnb to enable guests to stay in his latest installation, a replica of van Gogh's painting "Bedroom in Arles".

alt = “>

alt = “>

Guests are invited to stay for $ 10 per night (pictures: Art Institute of Chicago; public domain)

The listing on Airbnb describes the room as "set up in a post -impressionist style that is reminiscent of southern France and past times" and boasts that they will feel like they are living in a painting.

The price is only $ 10 per night. The host explains: "I have to buy color."

March: Obama visits Cuba

In March, Barack Obama was the first American president to visit Cuba for almost a century. The visit followed the efforts to restore the diplomatic relationships between the two countries decades after the fall of the USA supported by the USA Fulgencio Batista by Fidel Castros Revolution in 1959.

alt = “2016 visited Barack Obama Kuba”> Kimberly Shavender/Shutterstock 2016 visited Barack Obama Kuba

When he arrived, Obama tweeted: "Que Bolá Cuba? I ended up here and look forward to meeting the Cuban people and hearing directly from him."

Obama visited Havana in the rain and made sure not to slip on the wet stones next to the Havana cathedral. His wife Michelle and two daughters were also in the country to do it.

April: The British public chooses Boaty McBoatface

After the polling stations were closed for the naming of its new polar research ship, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) confirmed that he received 124,109 votes in favor of RRS Boaty McBoatface, four times as many voices as the next competitor.

alt = “>

not boaty mcboatface (picture: nerc, fair use)

The name was first proposed by BBC radio presenter James hand and quickly aroused the public's imagination, which made the competition viral.

Unfortunately, nerc thwarted public coordination and decided to name 200 million pound polar researchers in honor of the BBC broadcaster "RRS Sir David Attenborough".

Of course there was a lot of talk about the decision.

call to Sir David Attenborough to do the right thing and to change your name in Sir #Boatymcboatface by document survey in Sir #Boatymcboatface

- Jo Lindsay Walton (@jolwalton) May 6, 2016

May: Nepalesin completes seventh Everest summit

In May, Lhakpa Sherpa, 42, who works in a 7-eleven shop in Connecticut in the USA, reached the summit of Everest for the seventh time and thus beat her own record.

lhakpa, one of eleven children, was born in the eastern district of Sankhuwasabha in Nepal, where the fifth highest mountain in the world, the Makalu, is located.

alt = “>

lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Everest seven times (Image: Jesse Burke; Fair use)

Despite her extraordinary achievements, Lhakpa remains largely unknown, partly due to her reluctance to speak to reporters after she had supposedly suffered domestic violence through her husband. Recently separated from her ex-husband, Sherpa completed her last summit after a 10-year break.

June: Sevelyn Gat goes to China

In a particularly amusing case of the "fake", the would-be tourist Sevelyn Gat had photoshop transformed into a number of pictures that represent a trip to China.

alt = “>

Sevelyn in one of her "vacation snapshots" (Image: Sevelyn Gat, Fair Use)

The pictures were completely not convincing and triggered a meme in which Sevelyn found itself in a number of unlikely scenarios.

In a heart -warming end of the episode, local businessman Sam Gichuru had pity with Sevelyn and collected enough money to really send her from Kenya to China!

alt = “>

Sevelyn really visits China (Image: Sevelyn Gat, Fair Use)

July: Buzz Aldrin tweeted travel expenses

in July Buzz Aldrin tweeted his expenses ... for his trip to the moon. The former Astronaut published his “travel voucher” for his trip to space, which shows that he claimed $ 33.31 for a trip from Houston, Texas, to the moon and back.

47 years ago I submitted my travel voucher reimbursement for my trip to the moon. #Apollo11 ​​pic.twitter.com/dhaxeyvthi

- Buzz Aldrin (@therealbuzz) July 27, 2016

The voucher lists Aldrin's travel arrangements, with a "governmentship ship" noted among the aircraft and cars used on the trip.

A second tweet shows that all Astronauts from Apollo 11 had to sign an customs form when they return to earth. When they arrived in Honolulu on July 24, 1969, Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins said that they had brought "moon rock and moon dust samples".

August: Grönlandhai exposed as 400 years old

In August, scientists revealed that a Greenlandhai is probably the oldest living vertebrate on the planet.

With all kinds of scientific magic - from carbon dating to eye lens analysis - the team found that a female shark with a length of just over five meters is about 392 years old.

alt = “>

A Greenlandhai, photographed after his release from the research ship Sanna (Image: Julius Nielsen, Fair Use)

The discovery shows that the shark (Somniosus MicroCephalus) is much older than the Greenland whale, which is known that it has been living for 211 years.

It is even more surprising that the Greenlandhai fades compared to the world's most durable animal. This title is held by Ming, an Icelandic shell that made it up to 507 years before scientists unwittingly killed her.

September: The National African American Museum is opened in DC

In September, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on a two hectare site in the National Mall in Washington, Dc.

alt = “>

The National Museum of African American History and Culture (Image: Rex Hammock, Creative Commons)

The 400,000 square foot Museum is intended to convey the "unvarnished truth" of the American past and celebrate the triumph of its presence. It houses over 36,000 artifacts, including the coffin of Emmet Till, the 14-year-old boy, who was murdered in 1955 because he reported a white woman when he visited relatives in Mississippi.

President Obama spoke in the inauguration and said: "African -American history is not somehow separated from American history. It is not the downside of American history. It is of central importance for American history."

October: The image of the Pakistani Chai Wala goes viral

When the photographer Javeria Ali put a spontaneous snapshot of a Pakistani Chai Wala (tea seller) online, she had no idea what frenzy would trigger it.

alt = “>

Arshad Khan made many hearts beat faster (picture: Javeria ali, fair use)

The smoldering picture of the then unknown Arshad Khan, 18, began to trend on social media when thousands of Twitter users publicly explained their love.

The clothing brand fitin.pk rode on the wave of Arshads newly discovered fame and quickly signed it as a model. When announced by her partnership, the brand wrote on Facebook: "Chai Wala is no longer Chai Wala, now he is Fashion Wala!"

November: The Planet Earth returns

A full 10 years after the first series, BBCS Planet Earth returned to our screens with national fanfare. The six episodes comprehensive series - islands, mountains, jungle, deserts, grasslands and cities - was told by Sir David Attenborough and none other than Hans Zimmer with an extraordinary soundtrack.

The iconic scenes took no end, red lynx and kick -boxing frog father to the snow -leopard boy and lions who fight against a giraffe - not to mention the terrible plague of grasshoppers. If you haven't seen it yet, do it!

December: Waterfalls

In December, Uluru was transformed by a series of waterfalls that were created by heavy downpours. The 600 million year old gigantic rock formation is located in one of the driest regions of Australia and is exposed to extreme temperatures that extend from high 40 degrees to night.

The National Park on Uluru was closed after record ranges - and dramatic pictures show why. The storm created makeshift waterfalls that fall down the 300 meter high sandstone facades of the rock, which experts called a phenomenon that occurs twice in a century.

Mission statement: Dreamstime